Whats in a name: Revisting the Anthropocene
Whats in a name: Revisting the Anthropocene
The effect of global change on organisms
Are human impacts like a hammer and biological systems a nail?
What are the problems with this analogy?
The effect of global change on organisms
- Hammer strikes have different characteristics
- Global change stressors can vary in magnitude, velocity
- Stressors vary from local - regional - global
- How many hammers are occurring
- Nails have different characteristics
- Organisms vary in their vulnerability to global change stressors
- Adaptation is not the only response
- Also… the nail can influence the hammer
- Living things can respond to global change stressors and affect the entire system
The effect of global change on organisms
Organisms have different elements of “vulnerability”
The degree to which a system is susceptible to adverse effects of global change is a function of:
-
Exposure: The character, magnitude and rate of a perturbation
- How hard & fast does the hammer hit?
-
Sensitivity: Degree the system changes from a given perturbation
- Is the nail fragile or robust?
-
Response: Ability of a system to respond from perturbation
- Can the nail bounce back?
The effect of global change on organisms
So….organismal responses are critically important
Organisms affect their own fate and also the dynamics of biotic systems as a whole
Humans now dominate and modify the planetary system
- As human populations continue to rise, so do the pressures placed in natural systems
- no stop in sight
- How do biological systems respond to human impacts on planet Earth?
- Confronted with a changing world, what can organisms do?
- What we will consider in Unit II is: WHAT IS POSSIBLE?
The “Adjacent Possible’ Theory - Stuart Kauffman
- Theory proposes that biological systems are able to morph into more complex systems by making incremental, relatively less energy consuming changes in their make up
- small steps rather than extreme jumps or more distant possibilities
- concept of ‘lowest hanging fruit’
- Kauffman was particularly interested in the origins of order and the mechanisms that drive self-organization, via evolution
- how the actual expands into the adjacent possible
- what possible responses are the most ‘nearby’ (most conceivable)
The “Adjacent Possible’ theory - Stuart Kauffman
How the actual expands into the adjacent possible
- The actual describes the system in its current state, with all its components and interconnections
- The adjacent possible contains the set of possibilities available to individuals, communities, institutions, organisms, productive processes, etc., at a given point in time during their evolution
- For example, if a butterfly species is a generalist or a specialist feeder its ‘adjacent possibles’ will be more or less tied to its community
The adjacent possible for other species
If environmental conditions are changing… what are the adjacent possible options for survival?
In physical space -> move
In physiological / behavioral space -> adjust
In genetic / adaptive space -> adapt
If no adjacent possible -> die
Responses are not mutually exclusive
The adjacent possible for other species
If environmental conditions are changing…
what are the adjacent possible options for survival?
-
What determines the adjacent possible?
- Organisms traits
- developmental, physical, behavioral
- Environmental features
- Dynamics of change
- Organisms traits
The adjacent possible for other species
If environmental conditions are changing…
what are the adjacent possible options for survival?
-
What determines the adjacent possible?
- Organisms traits
- developmental, physical, behavioral
- Environmental features
- Dynamics of change
- Organisms traits
The adjacent possible for other species
If environmental conditions are changing…
what are the adjacent possible options for survival?
-
What determines the adjacent possible?
- Organisms traits
- developmental, physical, behavioral
- Environmental features
- Dynamics of change
- Organisms traits
The adjacent possible for other species
If environmental conditions are changing…
what are the adjacent possible options for survival?
-
What determines the adjacent possible?
- Organisms traits
- developmental, physical, behavioral
- Environmental features
- Dynamics of change
- Organisms traits
Organismal response to global change
- Responses can occur at nested levels:
- individuals
Organismal response to global change
- Responses can occur at nested levels:
- individuals
- populations
- metapopulations
- species
- communities
- ecosystems
- biomes
Core Response: Move (Chapter 5)
Move: movement of individuals, populations or species (range changes)
QUESTION: How would you categorize different types of movement? 
The adjacent possible for the move response
The adjacent possible for the move response
100 years from now where could species survive and how could it get there?
Can it disperse far enough fast enough over a fragmented landscape?
What is the role of the interaction with species and the environment?